Jamming the Classroom: Book Launch & Concert
2023-11-25 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
-IICSI is pleased to present a book launch & concert by Ajay Heble & Jesse Stewart! Please join us at the ImprovLab at 3 PM on Saturday, November 25th for this free event, open to all! Please RSVP here to confirm your attendance.
Books will be on hand for purchase!
For those who cannot make it in person, the concert will be live-streamed on IICSI’s official Twitch stream!
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About the book:
Jamming the Classroom: Musical Improvisation and Pedagogical Practice
Drawing on a mix of collaborative autoethnography, secondary literature, interviews with leading improvisers, and personal anecdotal material, Jamming the Classroom discusses the pedagogy of musical improvisation as a vehicle for teaching, learning, and enacting social justice. Heble and Stewart write that to “jam the classroom” is to argue for a renewed understanding of improvisation as both a musical and a social practice; to activate the knowledge and resources associated with improvisational practices in an expression of noncompliance with dominant orders of knowledge production; and to recognize in the musical practices of aggrieved communities something far from the reaches of conventional forms of institutionalized power, yet something equally powerful, urgent, and expansive. With this definition of jamming the classroom in mind, Heble and Stewart argue that even as improvisation gains recognition within mainstream institutions (including classrooms in universities), it needs to be understood as a critique of dominant institutionalized assumptions and epistemic orders. Suggesting a closer consideration of why musical improvisation has been largely expunged from dominant models of pedagogical inquiry in both classrooms and communities, this book asks what it means to theorize the pedagogy of improvised music in relation to public programs of action, debate, and critical practice.
About the authors:
Ajay Heble is Professor of English and Director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph. In 2023 he was awarded the Killam Prize in the Humanities.
Jesse Stewart is Associate Professor of Music at the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University. He is also the founder of We Are All Musicians, an organization dedicated to fostering inclusive music making.

Dans les arbres Workshop
2023-11-30 14:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
IICSI is pleased to present a workshop by Dans les arbres! Please join us at the ImprovLab at 2 PM on Thursday, November 30th for this free event, open to all!
Dans les arbres is an improvising ensemble comprising French clarinetist Xavier Charles alongside three Norwegians: pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland, and percussionist Ingar Zach. One of the main focuses for Dans les arbres has been to develop an “ensemble sound.” In this workshop, Dans les arbres will demonstrate their methods and invite participants to join in improvising together in a large ensemble–an extended Dans les arbres. Bring your instruments!
The workshop will be followed by a free concert by Dans les arbres at 8 PM.
Please RSVP here to reserve your slot!

Dans les arbres In Concert
2023-11-30 20:00 - 21:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Following their free workshop earlier that day, Dans les arbres will be performing a free concert at 8 PM on Thursday, November 30, in the ImprovLab! As with the workshop, this event is free and open to all.
Dans les arbres is an improvising ensemble comprising French clarinetist Xavier Charles alongside three Norwegians: pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland, and percussionist Ingar Zach.
The group’s idiosyncratic inhabitants form unusual combinations of airy, wooden, metallic sounds, prepared strings, and tampered drumheads. Their world of sounds and fine sense of communication lead to collective playing and spontaneous group-composing said to be in a “class of its own.” Their music moves gently but steadily ahead on broad planes of sound. The dynamic textural scenery evolves as Dans les arbres harnesses its wealth of unorthodox extended techniques.
Since the recording of their first album in 2006, Dans les arbres has performed more than 150 concerts around the globe. The group’s releases Dans Les Arbres (ECM 2008), Canopée (ECM 2012), Phosphorescence (HUBRO 2017), and Volatil (SOFA 2019) have received praise from reviewers and audiences alike. In 2019, Dans les arbres started releasing music from special projects on the group’s Bandcamp profile. Dans les arbres was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Music Prize in 2015. Dans les arbres has performed with guest musicians such as Yumiko Tanaka, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O’Rourke, the Norwegian duo Vilde & Inga, and The Norwegian Wind Ensemble. Together with singers and the Oslo Sinfonietta, the group performed the piece About Nature by Henrik Hellstenius at the Oslo Opera House in 2015.
Please RSVP here to reserve your concert ticket!

Thinking Spaces: Zane Zalis, "Head in the Clouds - Feet on the Ground | Improvising and Creating: A Way of Becoming and Being"
2023-12-06 14:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, December 6 at 2:00 PM for Thinking Spaces: “Head in the Clouds – Feet on the Ground | Improvising and Creating: A Way of Becoming and Being” with Zane Zalis.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
With decades of experience as an improvising musician, composer, lyricist, performer, educator, and more, Dr. Zane Zalis will share stories/experiences, insights, lessons, practices, and ideas that have informed and shaped his artistic and pedagogical journey. The entangled texture of his work, weaving emotion, feeling, reason, thinking, motivation and skill development as central to human understanding of self and others, renders the arts and values creativity/improvisation as indispensable to broad and deep human development.
More about the speaker:
Dr. Zane Zalis is a composer/lyricist/writer/producer/educator, having received the PhD Dissertation Award (CSSE ARTS SIG, Canada), Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond and Gold Medals, Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for the Advancement of Inter-Religious Understanding, Opus Klassik (Germany-six nominations), Canon of Culture Prize 2017 (Lodz, Poland), Canada Council for the Arts grant- composer/lyricist/librettist, and an invitation to become a composer-member of the prestigious BMI Musical Theatre Workshops, New York. His compositions have been performed in New York (Lincoln Center), Toronto (Roy Thomson Hall), Lodz (Grand Theatre), Scotland, Mexico, Stuttgart/Wuppertal/Leverkusen (Germany), Murau (Artistic Director of the International Music Festival, Austria), and Winnipeg (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, CBC – Jazz Orch., Queen Elizabeth II gala concert, et al). His oratorio, I Believe, has been recorded by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Bayer Philharmoniker (Ars Produktion-Germany). He has also worked in the commercial music field; radio, television, music theatre, and music production. He has taught at secondary and post-secondary levels, having founded and created innovative programs and methods that address creative/skill development, performance, and pedagogy.

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab - vol. I: AJAY and REZA
2024-02-03 14:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us Saturday, February 3rd, at 2:00 PM for the first in a series of small-scale, largely acoustic Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab.
Vol. I:
AJAY and REZA
(piano) (tar, voice)
Following this first iteration, subsequent concerts will take place the first Saturday of each month, inside ImprovLab (108 MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph Campus)—the best sounding room in Guelph!
As always, entry is free and our “Pop Up Concerts” will remain low-key.

Thinking Spaces: Colin Harrington "Improvisation in Sequencer-based Electronic Dance Music"
2024-02-08 12:00 - 13:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Thursday, February 8 at 12:00 PM for Thinking Spaces: “Improvisation in Sequencer-based Electronic Dance Music” with Colin Harrington.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
The culture and technology of Electronic Music has seen tremendous developments over the last decade. Thanks to the increased availability, affordability and accessibility of equipment, the artform’s popularity has exploded worldwide. One booming area is that of “Sequencer-based Improvisation”, which entails the synchronizing of one or more instruments together via a “Master Clock”, then using sequencers, sound design, audio mixers, and effects, to spontaneously compose fluid and spontaneous music in real-time.
Although many different styles of music can be explored within this medium, it is most popularly expressed within the stylistic framework and motivations inherent in Electronic Dance Music, a genre with a rich cultural and technological history, as well as a unique reciprocal relationship with the audience.
We will discuss a brief history of the technology and the cultural history of electronic dance music, and how specific pieces of equipment changed the genre. As well as how all these factors spawned a unique type of improvisation, and why it differs from other improvisational artforms.
The presentation will be followed by an open studio session, workshopping a wide selection of synchronized electronic instruments.
More about the speaker:
Colin Harrington is a Guelph based multimedia artist, A/V technician, and multidisciplinary musician. He performs in a “live hardware” electronic project called MOONBEAN, who has toured Canada and Europe playing semi-improvised dance music. He also produces and directs music videos, and works for IICSI as a technician in their ImprovLab at University of Guelph.

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, February 8
2024-02-08 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us for a schedule of Thursday afternoon (1–3 pm ET) ImprovLab Open House Sessions! The sessions will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. Bring any instrument and be ready to improvise!

The full schedule is as follows:
February 8th (Electronic Music Session); immediately following Thinking Spaces: Colin Harrington
February 29th
March 7th
March 21st
April 4th
April 18th
May 2nd
Hope to see you there!

Thinking Spaces: Zahra Habib "Lunar Rotations: Eternal Eleutheria
2024-02-28 14:00 - 16:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, February 28 at 2:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Eternal Eleutheria” with Zahra Habib.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
Zahra takes you on the cosmic experience that is Lunar Rotations, blending musical selections with narrative overtones that connect the sounds with the theme of arriving at an eternally internal freedom: Eleutheria.
More about the speaker:
Any creation from Zahra Habib is an experience. Zahra is an award-winning DJ, producer, radio host, and multi-faceted creator. Her Lunar Rotations radio show and live experience is a performance of cathartic, creative force, and has rocked dance floors in London, Toronto, and New York. She has produced countless radio and podcast programs, and is known for her ability to inspire deep understanding and transformative ideas in her interviews, viewable on LunarRotations.TV. An advocate an expressive, creative life for all, she is a Board Member of TD Sunfest World Music Festival, the JUNOs Hip-Hop and Rap Advisory committee, and among many other distinctions, the owner of Shakti Creative Media Garden.Keep up with Zahra via zahrahabib.ca, and Instagram: @Zahra.Shakti @Lunar.Rotations

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, February 29
2024-02-29 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

Thinking Spaces: MT Space "Multicultural Theatre Space: Intercultural Theatre Creation"
2024-03-01 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Friday, March 1 at 1:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Multicultural Theatre Space: Intercultural Theatre Creation” with MT Space.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
MT Space presents a demonstration of the intercultural theatre creation methodology established by Majdi Bou-Matar, and engages others in the conversations around devised processes, ancestry, and culture clash. This workshop / talk will feature four actors: Nada Abusaleh, Ahmad Meree, Brad Cook, and Jewels Krauss.
More about the speaker:
MT Space (Multicultural Theatre Space) was founded in 2004 by Lebanese-Canadian Majdi Bou-Matar, who was a trained director, actor, and dancer. After receiving the same criticism over and over, hearing that his accent was too thick or that he “didn’t look the part”, Majdi decided to create a company that would become a platform for all artists that felt marginalized, racialized, and displaced. This is how MT Space was born.
MT Space has grown from being a company that produces one show every year to an organization that brings culturally and socially relevant work from across the country and around the world to our community of Kitchener-Waterloo. We have challenged the preconceptions of theatre to create, produce, and present work that is accessible and affordable to low-income families while creating a space for Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and marginalized voices to be heard.
MT Space challenges the definition of theatre to include all disciplines such as dance, music, multimedia, and circus performing arts. As such, MT Space is becoming a presenter of artists and arts organizations across many disciplines.

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab - VoI. II: AJAY, BEN, and annais
2024-03-02 14:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us Saturday, March 2nd, at 2:00 PM for the second in a series of small-scale, largely acoustic Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab.
Vol. II:
AJAY, BEN, and annais
(piano, bass, and voice)
Subsequent ‘Pop Up Concerts’ will take place the first Saturday of each month, @ ImprovLab (108 MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph Campus)—the best sounding room in Guelph!
As always, entry is free and our Pop Up series will remain low-key.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, March 7
2024-03-07 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

Thinking Spaces: Dreams Come True "Improvisation and Radical Accessibility"
2024-03-13 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, March 13 at 1:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Improvisation and Radical Accessibility” with Dreams Come True Music Studio.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) is pleased to host an extended Thinking Spaces event focusing on ‘radical accessibility’ (Rice & Besse, 2020) within arts education. In this moderated discussion/mini-performance, we are joined by special guests, Dr. Caroline Blumer (Western University) and Allison O’Connor (Dreams Come True Music
Studio, Founder). They will share ways they have merged radical accessibility and improvisational practices in creating and sustaining inclusive musical theater spaces in Brazil and London, ON Canada. This two-hour special event will feature a mini-performance by members of London, Ontario’s very own, Dreams Come True Music Studio (DCT). Come enjoy a live performance by the “dreamers”as they are affectionately called, and also insightful conversation with the DCT team, families and caregivers.
More about the speakers:
Allison O’Connor holds a Bachelor Of Music Honours Music Education and Bachelor Of Education from Western University and has been an elementary school vocal and instrumental music teacher since 1988. She has taught for the North York Board of Education and Thames Valley District School Board conducting choirs, bands, and school musicals. Allison is founder and artistic director of Dreams Come True Music Studio (DCT), a studio focusing on people of all ages and abilities. DCT holds summer, fall, and winter music programs, where “dreamers” learn, improvise, and rehearse in preparation for musicals and concerts. Allison and the DCT musicians have received numerous accolades and notable recognition from the community, including The London Free Press and CTV news for their commitment to inclusion and making a difference through music.

Dr. Caroline Blumer holds a Ph.D in Music Education from Western University as well as a Bachelor in Popular Music & Jazz degree and a Master in Music Education degree, both from the State University of Campinas, Brazil. As a soloist, she has performed in “Los Conciertos de Navidad” in Havana and Matanzas (Cuba) accompanied by Brasília Jazz Symphonic. Caroline taught voice in her private studio for 10 years. She was instructor for the “Popular Singing” and “Singing for Actors” courses at Carlos Gomes Conservatory (Campinas). She was Musical Director and Vocal Coach in
important Brazilian musical theater productions such as “Malandro’s Opera”, “The Lion King”, “Man of La Mancha”, “Notre Dame of Paris” and others. Alongside her work as a jazz singer and musician, she is a researcher and teacher interested in inclusive musical contexts where people with intellectual disabilities experience music-making. Caroline has worked with individuals with disabilities and individuals on the Autistic Spectrum within inclusive musical theatre programs and schools in Brazil. In Canada, she is engaged as a volunteer and researcher with two inclusive musical programs at L’Arche Community and Dreams Come True Music Studio in London, ON.
Get up each day and sing your song.

These words are near and dear to my heart not only because they were composed by our friend Ken Fleet, but also because Dreams Come True Music Studio aspires for everyone of all ages and all abilities to be able to get up each day and sing their song.
The Dreams Come True Music Studio creates opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to participate in high quality productions and to transform their lives through music. The studio celebrates diversity, inclusion, acceptance, and all abilities.
It was April 2018 while walking my dog Max, that I was chatting with my sister Heather on the phone about my dream to find a music program which was truly inclusive for all; one in which my son Cameron could be successful. He has been surrounded by music all his life and knowing the importance of music in life, I wanted Cameron to experience success with music. We found our love of sport through Special Olympics but we were missing the music piece. Because of his intellectual disability and FASD, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, he learns differently. But he learns. The goal was for Cameron to experience music and feel confident. Those of you who have been involved in music programs must relish the memories of your rehearsals, your concerts, your shows and your friendships made through music. I want that for everyone.
During that walk with Max, my sister said, “Stop looking for the program. Create it. You are a music teacher specialist and have been advocating for inclusion since you and Cameron became family.”
So began the adventure. We offer Summer, Fall and Winter programs all culminating in amazing Showcase Concerts. Rehearsals are spent together singing, moving, experiencing music and making friendships. We don’t try harder, we try differently. We are a family. We are not a special needs music group. We are not a kids choir. We are a fantastic, dedicated and energetic Musical Theatre group! I am so proud of every one of my musicians. It is a privilege to work with our families, musicians, caregivers, local agencies and spectacular volunteers who make our dreams come true. They teach me so much and I am grateful.
Our musicians: Wow! They are capable and we believe in them. We thank them for pushing themselves personally and musically. They make a difference.
Please visit our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to learn about our DCT Family and our upcoming programs.
I want to thank my son, Cameron for believing in the power of Music. He provided the experiences for me to help to make this happen. Being removed from programs, being told to look elsewhere, motivated me to show others what he CAN do. The journey can be lonely but now with our Dreams Come True Family, we are not alone. We believe.
We thank you for believing. This experience will be forever in our hearts.
#inclusion #abilitiesfirst #singyoursong

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Labour and Us: A Workshop and Performance Series
2024-03-14 15:00 - 16:30 | Ontario
Please join us for Labour and Us: A Workshops and Performance Series by IMPR Students “Cohort Four / Almost Alchemy.” All workshop events and the final performance are free, and the organizers a offering free snacks and hot beverages. Participation is limited to folks ages 19 and up. Please register for these special workshops at the Eventbrite link.
The schedule is as follows:
Workshop 1) Thursday March 14, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm at ImprovLab, MCK U of G
WRITING & IMPROVISED DANCE WORKSHOP W/ AIMÉE DAWN ROBINSON
Workshop 2) Wednesday March 27, 5:00 pm -7:00 pm Silence, 46 Essex
STORYTELLING THROUGH MUSIC SHARING W/ MATTHEW ENDAHL
Workshop 3) Friday April 5, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm at Guelph Public Library, East Side Branch
DEVISED MAKING (HANDS-ON) WORKSHOP W/ MICHAEL BERGMANN
Workshop 4) Wednesday April 17, 5-6:30pm at Massey Hall, room 300, U of G
DEVISED THEATRE CONFLICT RESOLUTION W/ TOM SCHOLTE
Performance and Roundtable Discussion – Friday April 19, 7:00 pm, ImprovLab, MCK U of G
Participating in the performance is optional (but encouraged!) and requires taking part in at least one workshop, though we’d love to have all workshop participants join as much as possible. The roundtable discussion will feature Alan Filewod, Cynthia Ashperger, and Judith Thompson, and explore the history of worker’s theatre, how labour and the arts interesect, and how radical labour may help (re)define our work in the arts in the future.
More About the Events:
The workshops are designed for workers to explore creative outlets for themselves, to build solidarity with each other through the arts. We are CUPE 3913 members – but all workers are welcome to attend! For all people ages 19 and up.
More About the Organizers:
We’re second year PhD students, Michael F Bergmann, Lucas Carravetta, Matthew Endahl, and Aimée Dawn Robinson – the fourth cohort of the Critical Studies in Improvisation program (IMPR) at the University of Guelph. We come from dance, music, and theatre backgrounds. We also have a band called Almost Alchemy, which you can check out it here!

"Mop Mop" aka "Boff Boff" aka "For Big Sid": Max Roach, Transcription, Composition, Improvisation, Rhythm, and Creativity | IMPR Colloquium: Nick Fraser
2024-03-15 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Friday, March 15 at 1:00 PM (ET) for “Mop Mop” aka “Boff Boff” aka “For Big Sid”: Max Roach, Transcription, Composition, Improvisation, Rhythm, and Creativity | IMPR Colloquium with Nick Fraser.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom.

More About this Talk:
Musical improvisation is real-time invention––the creation of the new. My master’s research examined one of the most common current ways of teaching musical improvisation in the jazz education system: the act and study of “transcription,” whereby students learn other musicians’ improvised acts (usually iconic “solos” from the jazz tradition), commit them to paper (or memory). The pervasiveness of this practice was interrogated through Gilles Deleuze’s and Félix Guattari’s conception of “the smooth and the striated” and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work on embodiment and speech. I argued that transcription, as currently taught, privileges a type of listening that elevates individual improvised acts above group interaction and is only tangentially related to improvisation itself. Further, though jazz educators speak of transcription as a part of the process of arriving at a personal approach to improvising, by defining improvisation within such measurable models, I argued that its implementation has (in Deleuze’s terms) taken something smooth (fluid, negotiable, dialogic) and fashioned it into something more striated (repeatable, set, hierarchical). For this presentation, I will demonstrate some of the issues raised by this work, using different strategies in performances of Max Roach’s solo drum piece, “For Big Sid,” offering openings to discuss the complex intersection of composition and improvisation in musical performance (which is the focus of my doctoral research).
Musical improvisation can stand alone or occur within compositional parameters. In the mid-1960s, composer and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell spoke of composition as the creation of an environment and made a distinction between “composition” and what he imagined as a possible “free” music. Regarding his early work, Sound, he states, “the musicians are free to make any sound that they hear at a particular time. That could be somebody who felt like stomping on the floor, well, he would stomp on the floor.” Mitchell (and many others) compose music that rejects the composition/improvisation binary, embracing a wide spectrum of intentionality where the ideas and desires of the performers can be central to the pieces––equal, in fact, to the those of the composer. In my view, too much improvised artwork hinges on the mere possibility of unexpected events, and exactly how those events play out can be viewed as incidental to the work––their occurrence can be conflated with artistic success. I believe this question to be key to writing contemporary music for improvisers––not merely “if we wish, we can stomp on the floor” as Mitchell would have it, but “if we are to stomp on the floor, how do we stomp on the floor?” If the art of improvising in music is to be advanced, and if composition within this artform is the creation of environments, those environments must be conducive to judgement and discipline, as well as to novelty and the unexpected. As the Jimmie Lunceford Band sang in 1939, “it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.”
More About the Speaker:
Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community since he moved there from Ottawa in 1995. He has worked with a veritable “who’s who” of Canadian jazz and improvised music and with such international artists as Tony Malaby, Kris Davis, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, and William Parker. Nick’s recorded works as a leader include Owls in Daylight (1997), Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004), Towns and Villages (2013), Zoning (2019), and If There Were No Opposites (2021). For 10 years, he co-led the co-operative group Drumheller, who released four critically acclaimed CDs between 2005 and 2013. Other projects that occupy Nick regularly are the Florian Hoefner Trio, Ugly Beauties, Peripheral Vision, the Lina Allemano Four, and Titanium Riot. Nick has been engaged in graduate studies at the University of Guelph since 2021.
“Fraser not so much plays the drums as hurls himself whole body and soul against skin and metal… truly talented.” Bill Stunt, CBC Radio.
“The Toronto drummer is perhaps a little too progressive for the hidebound Canadian scene… Fraser is a deft and sensitive percussionist with a hint of an enigmatic streak, a feeling for economical gestures, and an innate sense of form.” Mark Miller, The Globe & Mail.
To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, March 21
2024-03-21 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

Balance (Detroit): Improvised Music Masterclass at ImprovLab
2024-03-22 14:00 - 16:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Friday, March 22 at 2:00 PM (ET) for a Masterclass with the boundary-pushing jazz duo, Balance. This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free! As always, our Masterclass events are free!
The duo will also be performing a ticketed concert at Silence, at 8:00PM (ET), that same night.

More about this Masterclass:
Balance, the dynamic duo of saxophonist Marcus Elliot and pianist Michael Malis, renowned for their boundary-pushing jazz, are set to share their creative process in a masterclass setting. With a fusion of composed and improvised music, and drawing from their extensive experience as bandleaders and sidemen, they promise insights into crafting captivating compositions and heartfelt performances.
More about the Artists:
Balance is a collaborative duo between saxophonist Marcus Elliot and pianist Michael Malis. Called “two of Detroit’s most important young jazz musicians” by the Detroit Free Press, Elliot and Malis’ “intuitive improvisations” stand on the threshold of composed and improvised music, creating intimate portraits of musical expression that deal in the language of subtlety.
Check out Balance and give them a listen via https://balance.bandcamp.com/
To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Thinking Spaces: adam patrick bell "Admiration and Imitation: Toward a Disability-Led Model for Music Education"
2024-03-27 13:30 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, March 27 at 1:30 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Admiration and Imitation: Toward a Disability-Led Model for Music Education” with adam patrick bell.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
In this presentation, adam will discuss the disability-led model of Drake Music Lab, a UK-based organization that brands itself as “leaders in music, disability, and technology,” its influence on his community-based collaborative research projects in Canada, and the implications of this approach for the profession of music education
More about the speaker:
adam patrick bell is Canada Research Chair of Music, Inclusion, and Accessibility and an associate professor of music education at Western University, Canada. He is the author of Dawn of the DAW (Oxford, 2018), and editor of the Music Technology Cookbook (2020). adam is the editor of Canadian Music Educator and serves on the editorial boards of International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Music, Technology & Education, Journal of Popular Music Education, and Visions of Research in Music Education. Currently, adam is the principal investigator of three studies funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada that focus on disability and music education

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Campus Friends and IICSI present: "Sounds Like Us" - Final Performance
2024-04-03 13:30 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, April 3 at 1:30 PM (ET) for “Sounds Like Us” a Final Concert Performance by Campus Friends and IICSI.
This performance will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. This special concert event is free and open to all!
MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT:
“Let’s make it up as we go along!”
“Sounds Like Us”—presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and the Campus Friends (CF) program—brings professional musicians into collaboration with community members of varying developmental and physical needs through a series of fun and playful improvisation-based workshops.
This event celebrates a semester of music and community making with a final public concert!

MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Campus Friends is an initiative that offers post-secondary experiences on the University of Guelph campus to adults with varying developmental and physical needs.
A partnership between Community Living Guelph Wellington and U of G’s Experiential Learning Hub, this program has run on campus since 2016. Twelve participants take part each year, along with more than 20 mentors.
Typically, students attend Campus Friends one day per week during the year for up to three years. They take part in activities including academic and learning opportunities, volunteering, athletics and special events.
“Sounds Like Us” draws upon IICSI’s 12+ years of co-running “Play Who You Are” workshops with KidsAbility that have offered all participants—from new musicians to the very experienced; from music afficionados and scholars to first-time listeners—revelations about the links between music and community-making, improvisation and individual/community well-being, sound and self-expression.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, April 4
2024-04-04 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

Thinking Spaces: IICSI Postdoctoral Researchers, "Same Place, Same Time, Different Stories: Creative Interpolations"
2024-04-05 10:30 - 12:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Friday, April 5, at 1p:30 AM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Same Place, Same Time, Different Stories: Creative Interpolations” with IICSI Postdoctoral Researchers, Rebecca Barnstaple, Shelby Bohn, and jashen edwards.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via Zoom. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

More about this talk:
In this improvisational play session, current IICSI postdoctoral students (Rebecca Barnstaple, Shelby Bohn, and jashen edwards) will demonstrate and discuss ways their research intersects to inform new ways of sensing, knowing, and being. Weaving a tapestry of dance, science, and music, our presentation will elucidate how multisensory perceptions may be formed and (re)formed via multidisciplinary approaches to creative arts.
More about the speakers:
Rebecca Barnstaple (PhD Dance Studies; Graduate Program in Neuroscience 2020, York University) is the Manager of Community Initiatives, Research and Innovation at Centre Communautaire Chigamik Community Health Centre, Midland, Ontario, and an IICSI Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Guelph. A graduate of the National Centre for Dance Therapy at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (2015), she provides education and training in dance therapy and associated research globally. She has been involved in the development and delivery of improvisational arts and health initiatives in the United States (IMPROVment, Wake Forest University) and Canada (SingWell, Toronto Metropolitan University; Piece of Mind, McGill; Dance for Health, Nova Scotia) and serves in a leadership capacity for professional organizations including the Dance Movement Therapy Association of Canada (Accreditation and Certification Committee), the American Dance Therapy Association (Research and Practice Committee), and the International Association of Dance Medicine Science (International Benchmarking Standards Task Force, Dance for Health Committee). Rebecca directs the Research to Practice Lab for ZOE School of Dance Movement Therapy in Basel, Switzerland.
Dr. Shelby Bohn, a post-doctoral researcher at #UofG and lead artist behind College Royal’s 100th-anniversary mural, aims to bridge the gap between two disciplines that don’t often communicate with each other.

jashen edwards‘ research centers around students’ sonic lifeworlds – sound currents streaming at home, school, on the streets and cyberspace –examining how sonic encounters may be a conduit and catalyst for creative critical consciousness. Drawing upon the fields of archaeoacoustics, sound studies, and sensuous scholarship, his work seeks to draw connections between music education and social justice arts education through the phenomenon of sound. He has worked in PK-12 schools, colleges and universities, juvenile detention centers and homeless shelters in San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, Berlin, Deutschland and London, ON. jashen has published and presented his research internationally and is co-founder of Sound, Meaning, Education (SME). Presently, jashen is a in post-doctoral fellow at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI). He has earned a Ph.D. in music education from Western University, an MA in music education from Northwestern and a BA in music (composition) from the University of California, Berkeley.

To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab - VoI. III: AJAY, EMMA, KATHRYN and jashen
2024-04-06 14:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us Saturday, April 6th, at 2:00 PM for the third in a series of small-scale, largely acoustic Pop Up Concerts @ ImprovLab.
Vol. III:
AJAY, EMMA, KATHRYN, and jashen
(piano, electric guitar, loop pedal viola, and trumpet)
Subsequent ‘Pop Up Concerts’ will take place the first Saturday of each month, @ ImprovLab (108 MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph Campus)—the best sounding room in Guelph!
As always, entry is free and our Pop Up series will remain low-key.

IICSI Research Studio Session, Featuring Dr. Rashida K. Braggs' "Amber in the City of Light"
2024-04-12 09:00 - 15:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Friday, April 12 at 9:00 AM (ET) for IICSI’s “Research Studio Session, Featuring a Keynote Presentation by Dr. Rashida K. Braggs: Amber in the City of Light”
The morning will begin with Dr. Braggs’ keynote, followed by presentations of student work through the rest of the day.
This event will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The keynote presentation by Dr. Braggs will be streamed online via Zoom, the student portion will be in person only.

To attend the Keynote Portion of our day of research, please RSVP via our Google Forms. The studio session and keynote presentation are free and open to all!
More About the Research Studio Session:
The idea is to encourage grad students in the IMPR program and students/researchers working as research assistants with IICSI to present short (3-5 minute) descriptions of their improvisation-related research or work at an end-of-semester gathering of other students, as well as IICSI team members, staff, and invited guests.
Inspired, in part, by the “Three-Minute Thesis” competition for grad students, we hope that participants will respond to the challenge to present their work and its wider impact and implications in plain language in five minutes or less.

Kicking off the Research Studio Session will be a keynote presentation by Dr. Rashida K. Braggs (Africana Studies, Williams College, USA), entitled “Amber in the City of Light” which will begin around 9:00 AM (ET). Dr. Braggs’ presentation will be streamed online via Zoom.
More About The Keynote Presentation:
Dr. Rashida K. Braggs will screen and discuss Amber in the City of Light, a solo multimedia performance that shares and re-envisions the experiences of Black African diasporic women jazz artists who have migrated to Paris, France. Culling original interviews, field notes and archival research, Dr. Rashida K. Braggs enacts multiple narratives through an embodied performance that merges original song, dance, poetry and theatre.
More About The Presenter:

Dr. Rashida K. Braggs is a scholar-performer who acts, dances, sings, composes music and performs spoken word. Jacob’s Pillow, Williams College Museum of Art, the Tapir Art Gallery and the United Solo Theatre Festival have featured her performances. She is also a Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts), a Fulbright Global Scholar, and a co-recipient of a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship. The author of Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music and Migration in Post-World War II Paris, Rashida has also published in such journals as the Nottingham French Studies, the Journal of Popular Music Studies and The Black Scholar.

Schedule of Events:
9:00 KEYNOTE: Rashida K Braggs (Africana Studies, Williams College, USA), “Amber in the City of Light”
10:00 – 10:30 BREAK
10:30 Nick Fraser, “Smooth Operations: Composing Music for (Free?) Improvisers”
10:45 Rachelle Myrie, “‘The Spirit of the Thing’: Music, Improvisation, and Human Flourishing in African, Caribbean, and Black Communities”
11:00 Taylor Graham (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph), “The Blyth Festival Theatre and the Imagined Community of Rural Canada”
11:15 Matthew Endahl, “Holding Space for/in Ensemble Creativity”
11:30 Kathryn Cobbler, “Growing Intimate Conversations: Examining the Performer-Composer Connection of Music Improvisation”
11:45 Jordan Zalis (Ethnomusicology, Memorial University of Newfoundland), “Clouds of Probability: Improvisation as Effectuality in Spectacular Sports Theatre”
12:00 noon – 1:00 lunch
1:00 Aimée Dawn Robinson, “Full Circle”
1:15 Michael Bergmann, Improvnetics: Post-anthropocentric performance and improvisational modes for human-AI play, or: What we talk about when we talk about Intersentient empathy”
1:30 Mike Hansen, “When Does Noise Become A Sound?: Redefining Through Participatory Sound Art Practices”
1:45 Sofia Boz (Pedagogical, Educational and Instructional Sciences, University of Padua, Italy), “Jazz’n School”
2:00 Bob Wiseman, “The Black Box”
2:15 Brent Rowan, “Critical Hardware, Software, and Infrastructure Considerations for Telematic Musicking”
2:30 annais linares, “Arts-Based Kin Making: Co-creative Multispecies Accompaniment”

Live @ImprovLab: Susanna Hood Trio and Sarah Belle Reid
2024-04-17 19:30 - 21:30 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 PM (ET) for the series premier of Live @ImprovLab, featuring the Susanna Hood Trio and Sarah Belle Reid in an inspiring double bill. This performance will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph.
Tickets are $15 or PWYC and available online through IICSI’s Eventbrite page. While tickets will be made available at the door, attendees are encouraged to reserve tickets ahead of time.
The double bill will be preceded by a panel discussion moderated by Marie Zimmerman in which the artists will contextualize the work they will be presenting, and share insights about the role that improvisation plays in what they do.
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT:
IICSI’s new Live @ImprovLab concert and performance series serves to showcase touring artists working in a variety of improvisatory idioms. Curated by IICSI Director Dr. Ajay Heble (Founder and former Artistic Director of the Guelph Jazz Festival and 2023 Killam Prize winner), the new series, says Heble, “aims to celebrate live improvised performances and to spotlight our beautiful new venue.”
Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal-based bandleader and vocalist-dancer, Susanna Hood, along with the superb Tkaronto/Toronto-based musicians, Tania Gill (piano) and Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone) bring poet Judith Malina and composer Steve Lacy’s 1995 “Packet” suite to life through sound and movement. These audacious new arrangements blur the lines between what is heard and what is seen. Heart-felt, yet unsentimental, these eight songs hold no punches as they bring voice to a woman’s later life, grappling with imperfection, sexism, paradox, grit, beauty, regret, invisibility, death, and love.
In Sarah Belle Reid’s improvisations and compositions, musical notation is often experimental and graphical—an invitation to explore a new sonic universe. This spirit for exploration has led her to collaborate with musicians and artists of all genres, including experimental electronic musician David Rosenboom, thereminist Carolina Eyck, and baroque-pop artist Julia Holter. Reid recorded trumpet and electronics on Holter’s 2019 record Aviary, and recently wrapped up an extensive tour throughout North America, Europe, and Australia as a member of her band. Reid’s own compositions have been premiered and performed by a number of renowned musicians, most recently pianist Vicki Ray and trumpeter Nate Wooley. In 2017 her composition “Flux” for amplified percussion quartet won the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Next Wave Composer Initiative.
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Susanna Hood has devoted her career to synthesizing voice and movement, creating intimate, sensual and dynamic performances both in dance-theatre and improvised music contexts. Founder of her interdisciplinary performance company hum dansoundart (2000-2013) her work has been marked by significant collaborations with musical artists Nilan Perera (She’s Gone Away, Shudder), John Oswald (Spinvolver), and Scott Thomson (The Rent – Musique de Steve Lacy, The Muted Note – songs and dances setting the poetry of P.K. Page).
Recent creations (Music Is, 2016, and Impossibly Happy, 2019) have been driven by her own musical compositions arranging voices, instruments and movement. Other collaborations of note include Tortues Vapeur, a duo with Montreal turntablist, Martin Tétreault, mixing turntables, electronics, synthesizers, vocals and objects. (DAME’s Mikroclimat label, 2019); a duo with Belgian bassist, Peter Jacquemyn; and performances with the French trio Rrève Sélavy (Frédéric BBriet, double bass; Nicolas Pointard, drums; and Christophe Rocher, clarinettes). Unpacked, the first project with her trio with Toronto/Tkaronto musicians Tania Gill (piano) and Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone), is a new arrangement and interpretation of the Packet suite by late American poet, Judith Malina and late American jazz composer, Steve Lacy. unPacked will be released as a recording in early 2024 on Quebec’s DAME label. Awards include the 1998 K.M. Hunter Emerging Artists Award in Dance, 2006 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance, and the 2008 Canada Council Victor Martin Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Dance. For more information, please follow this link to Susanna’s website.
Kayla Milmine loves the new and under-explored sonic possibilities that only the soprano saxophone can offer. Her unique approach has the edginess and brashness of Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell yet also a warmth and thoughtfulness reminiscent of Steve Lacy. In 2019, Milmine released a solo album called ‘Straight Horn Magick; a mixture of field recordings and solo soprano saxophone improvisations. She plays regularly in trio form with pianist Bill Gilliam and percussionist Ambrose Pottie, and in duo form with guitarist/composer Brian Abbott in their band FASTER. In February 2019, she was invited to record with celebrated bassist, William Parker in a chamber-improv sextet in NY, where she often travels to study with mentor/collaborator, Sam Newsome. She is presently composing for her new project, the ‘Kayla Milmine Quartet’ with aforementioned Sam Newsome, and drummers Mark Ferber and Rachel Housle. She is co-founder of the Women From Space Festival in Toronto.
Toronto-based pianist and composer Tania Gill has spent over twenty years cultivating a singular but polymorphous musical approach. She has developed a distinctive improvisational language in jazz and improvised music, playing in ensembles such as the Brodie West Quintet, Chris Banks Trio, The Titillators, See Through Trio and Rebecca Hennessy’s Makeshift Island. Her own group, the Tania Gill Quartet, comprises leading Canadian musicians Lina Allemano (trumpet), Rob Clutton (bass), and Nico Dann (drums). Their acclaimed disc Bolger Station (2010, Barnyard Records), was nominated for best debut album in the Village Voice jazz critics’ poll and was included among the Globe and Mail’s top ten albums of the year. The follow-up, Disappearing Curiosities, launched in 2022 and was included on best-of-2022 lists in the Wire. Gill’s unconventional versatility keeps her engaged in an eclectic array of styles. She was a member of Deep Dark United and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, and is a regular collaborator to vocalist Fides Krucker, and singer-songwriter Kyp Harness. She has also shared the stage with Steve Reich, Man Forever, Gord Downie, Mary Margaret O’Hara, the Weather Station, Margaret Atwood, and Charles Spearin’s Happiness Project, and she has performed with dancers including Peggy Baker, Andrea Nann, Heidi Strauss and Laurence Lemieux. Tania is a supportive and dedicated educator and currently teaches at Humber College and the University of Toronto. Fore more information, please follow this link to Tania’s website.
Sarah Belle Reid is a performer-composer who plays trumpet, modular synthesizer, and an ever-growing collection of handcrafted electronic instruments. Her unique musical voice explores the intersections between contemporary classical music, experimental and interactive electronics, visual arts, noise music, and improvisation. Often praised for her ability to transport audience members through vivid sonic adventures, Reid’s sonic palette has been described as ranging from “graceful” and “danceable” all the way to “silk-falling-through-space,” and “pit-full-of-centipedes” (San Francisco Classical Voice).
Reid holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from California Institute of the Arts, with a research focus on the development of new electronic instruments and musical notation systems as interfaces for exploring temporal perception and co-creation. Her debut album for trumpet and interactive electronics, “Underneath and Sonder,” was released on pfMENTUM in October, 2019. In March 2024 she released a tape-music inspired electroacoustic record titled “MASS”, featuring trumpet, voice, electronics, and amplified objects, on Aurora Central Records.
In addition to her performance and compositional work, Reid runs an online music education company dedicated to teaching sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition to professional and hobbyist musicians. She has mentored thousands of musicians from around the world in her online programs, and is a frequent guest lecturer at notable institutions in the US and Canada including Stanford University, University of Victoria, California Institute of the Arts, New York University (NYU), among others. For more information, please follow this link to Sarah’s website.

ImprovLab Open House Sessions, April 18
2024-04-18 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

(Cancelled) ImprovLab Open House Sessions, May 2
2024-05-02 13:00 - 15:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros - Film Screening - ArtsEverywhere Festival
2024-05-05 16:00 - 19:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Sunday, May 5th, from 4–7 pm (ET) for a screening of “Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros.” The screening will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is part of the ArtsEverywhere Festival.
A post-screening conversation with director Daniel Weintraub (remote), executive producer IONE (remote) and collaborator Anne Bourne will be moderated by Ajay Heble.
More Information about the Event
Daniel Weintraub’s new feature-length film, “Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros“, is a documentary that traces the life and work of visionary composer, musician, teacher, technological innovator, and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016).
Pauline was one of the world’s original electronic musicians, the only woman amongst notable post-war American composers, a master accordion player, a teacher and mentor to musicians, a gateway to music and sound for non-musicians, and a technical innovator who helped develop everything from tools that allow musicians to play together while in different countries, to software that enables those with severe disabilities to create beautiful music.
Produced in collaboration with executive producer IONE, Oliveros’ partner in life and work, and the Ministry of Maåt, Inc., the film combines rare archival footage, live performances, and unreleased music with appearances by Terry Riley, Anna Halprin, Ione, Linda Montano, Laurie Anderson, Thurston Moore, Alvin Lucier, Claire Chase, Miya Masaoka, Morton Subotnick, Tony Martin, Ramon Sender, and many more ground-breaking artists.
Please find a preview on the festival event webpage.
ImprovLab is a physically accessible venue. The Q&A portion of this event will feature live transcription and ASL interpretation. For details on the festival’s accessibility, please visit our general accessibility page.

Live Music: Anne Bourne/Joe Sorbara/Ajay Heble Trio - ArtsEverywhere Festival
2024-05-05 20:00 - 21:00 | Ontario
Please join us on Sunday, May 5th, from 8–9 pm (ET) for a live music performance by the Anne Bourne/Joe Sorbara/Ajay Heble Trio. The performance will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event acts the finale of the ArtsEverywhere Festival.
Refreshments will be served before the performance.
More About the Event
For this special closing night concert at the ArtsEverywhere Festival, these three friends will come together to perform for the first time in a trio setting. Their music will be freely improvised and animated by deep and attentive listening, joyful creative interaction, meditative soundscapes, and possible nods to various influences and traditions ranging from Pauline Oliveros to Indian ragas to free jazz and beyond.
ImprovLab is a physically accessible venue. For details on the festival’s accessibility, please visit our general accessibility page.

"Has it started...?" by Rebecca Barnstaple - Artist Residency at ImprovLab
2024-05-27 10:00 - 18:00 | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us, starting Monday, May 27, at 10:00 AM(ET) for “Has it Started…?” with IICSI Postdoctoral Fellow Rebecca Barnstaple. There will be a schedule of events each day until May 30th. “Has it started…?” is a 4 day open-door artist residency and practice-based inquiry at the ImprovLab, University of Guelph.
On May 31, at 11:00 AM (ET), Dr. Barnstaple has scheduled an Open Class, preceded by a lecture/webinar on adapted dance (Danse adaptee pour le bien-etre). Register here for the Open Class!
This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is free and open to all.

More About the Residency

Adapted dance is a deeply improvisational practice, created in relation with people of diverse mobilities and ages. Community members and visitors are invited to join Rebecca Barnstaple for a drop-in class at 11am on May 31st as a Friday kick-off for the Guelph Dance Festival. Rebecca has worked extensively with partners in dance/movement therapy, IMPROVment, dance for Parkinsons, and dance for health internationally. Inspired by this broad scope of practice, we will explore the possibilities present for the bodies in attendance. All are welcome!
The Open Class will be preceded by a LIVE broadcast of Danse adaptee pour le bien-etre, a webinar exploring programs and research associated with adapted dance offered in partnership with the National Centre for Dance Therapy and Chigamik Community Health Centre.

More About the Presenter
Rebecca Barnstaple (PhD Dance Studies; Graduate Program in Neuroscience 2020, York University) is the Manager of Community Initiatives, Research and Innovation at Centre Communautaire Chigamik Community Health Centre, Midland, Ontario, and an IICSI Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Guelph. A graduate of the National Centre for Dance Therapy at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (2015), she provides education and training in dance therapy and associated research globally. She has been involved in the development and delivery of improvisational arts and health initiatives in the United States (IMPROVment, Wake Forest University) and Canada (SingWell, Toronto Metropolitan University; Piece of Mind, McGill; Dance for Health, Nova Scotia) and serves in a leadership capacity for professional organizations including the Dance Movement Therapy Association of Canada (Accreditation and Certification Committee), the American Dance Therapy Association (Research and Practice Committee), and the International Association of Dance Medicine Science (International Benchmarking Standards Task Force, Dance for Health Committee). Rebecca directs the Research to Practice Lab for ZOE School of Dance Movement Therapy in Basel, Switzerland.

CFP - The 2024 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, "Sheets of Sound: Jazz, Improvisation, and Liner Notes"
2024-05-31 | Ontario
The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI), in partnership with the Guelph Jazz Festival and the University of Guelph, invites proposals for presentations at our annual interdisciplinary international conference. The colloquium will take place September 11-13, 2024, as part of the 31st annual Guelph Jazz Festival. Featuring panel discussions, debates, performances, workshops, keynote presentations, and critical conversations among researchers, artists, and audiences, the colloquium fosters a spirit of collaborative, boundary-defying inquiry and dialogue, and an international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges.
In his liner notes for John Coltrane’s 1958 recording Soultrane, jazz critic Ira Gitler famously coined the phrase “sheets of sound” to describe Coltrane’s unique style of improvisational playing. It’s an apt phrase not only for attempting to capture in writing the spirit and energy of Coltrane’s distinctive style, but also for acting as a metaphoric descriptor for the very genre of liner notes. As an important part of the history of jazz and creative improvised music, liner notes might themselves be considered as something akin to “sheets of sound” that have played a vital role in shaping our understanding of the music.
“Part publication relations blitz, part advertisement, part advance directive for hipsters, part forum for writers hoping to match chops with the musicians they adored, liner notes accomplished several tasks at once” writes Timothy Gray in his essay on “Jazz Criticism and Liner Notes” in the recently published volume Jazz and American Culture. This year’s edition of The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium invites presentations, prompts, and creative responses that reflect on some of these tasks, and that take up the question of what it means to use the liner note genre to write about jazz and creative improvised music.
In what ways have liner notes shaped the way the music is received? To what extent do liner notes contribute to the ways in which we negotiate and construct meaning about the music, how we understand history, how and why we listen? In what ways have digital dissemination and streaming services disrupted our notions of liner notes? And how has this shifted listener/audience understanding about their favourite artists?
Citing the “far-out notes produced by Sun Ra, John Coltrane,” and others, Daphne Brooks in her book Liner Notes for the Revolution explains that “liner notes hold out the possibility of operating as critical, fictional, or experimental works of writing in and of themselves. Conventional liner notes,” she suggests, “often walk a fine line between pedagogy and socialization, between sociohistorical and cultural reportage and heuristic conditioning (here’s how and why to love the artist in question). The most ambitious notes strive toward the narrative realization, or the narrative reimagining, of a sonic collection of songs altogether.” What, then, does it mean to engage in a narrative realization or reimagining of music? What are some of the critical, fictional, conceptual, or experimental forms and practices being advanced by writers of liner notes? What is it like to hear about the music from the artist’s perspective, and how might this shape the listener’s sonic experience? What is the future of liner notes in an age dominated by the digital delivery and dissemination of music? Does writing liner notes constitute a lost art or is the practice enjoying a resurgence? In what ways do archived/archival forms of liner notes play into thinking and writing about jazz and creative improvised music today? And what roles do artwork, design and layout play in the presentation and impact of liner notes and the reception of an album?
We invite presentations that address these (and other related) questions and concerns, as well as creative work that takes up the conference prompts. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary presentations that speak to both an academic audience and a general public. We also invite presenters to submit completed versions of their papers and presentations to our peer‐reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation (www.criticalimprov.com) for consideration.
Please send (500 word) proposals (for 15-minute delivery—alternate formats may also be considered) and a short bio by May 31, 2024, to Dr. Ajay Heble at jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca
